Another simple treasure crawl interactive fiction by Temple Software: Explore a fantasy realm where a hermit is rumoured to live, and find his fabulous treasure.

As with the other Temple Software games, this is a simple text adventure, with most puzzles simply consisting of giving the right item to the right person. You can enter simple commands to navigate through the world, and you can save your game.

The Phantom's Revenge, Hermit's Secret, and Castle Elsinore are three early pieces of IF from Temple Software that are of very little value except for its age <EG>. Hermit's Secretis very similar to Colossal Cave: your goal in the game is to discover as many treasures (belonging to the mysterious hermit in the title) as possible. To this end, you wander around, finding treasures and putting them in the appropriate location.

Riddled with below-average writing, inane puzzles, and inflexible parser that understands only the most basic verb-noun sentences, Hermit's Secret would deserve complete anonymity if not for some logical puzzles that do require a modicum of thought. It is also very unforgiving: once you find all the treasures, you only have a few moves to get back to the town hall to deposit them. Don't expect this game to be more than what it is: an Infocom wannabe that falls far off the mark.